Had no plan for this race. Was going by feel and left the HR strap in the car. I’ve got to recover quickly and get some miles in the next few weeks to get prepared for the CO Relay, so I didn’t want to set myself back.

Went out very much in control. ~.25mile on the road until we hit the trail. The front pack was about 5 runners, then a gap, them me with ~dozen runners. I sped up a bit just before the trail to get most of the pack behind me. Good, comfortable pace going up the hill. Once we got up was running behind the front-runner of my pack. His cadence and running form were annoying me so I passed him. He hung on for about .25 mi then dropped in the muddy single track. Was feeling really, really good at the mile marker so just maintain that and kept good form. Picked up the tempo until about the 1.5 mark as it was a slight down-grade. At this point my stomach was starting to tighten up so I started to pull it back. There was a pack of about 4 or 5 runners shadowing me, the front 5 runners were out of contact. At this point I didn’t really care if the group behind me caught up – I figured by that time I’d be close enough to the finish that I’d kick once they made contact. Got up the hill and they didn’t seem to make progress. My watch said 17:10 with .5 mile to go. The down-grade began and I stretched it out. Turned the corner and saw the finish line – 19:40. Picked it up because breaking 20 seemed like a real possibility. Started to sprint hard now and stepped in the creek as to not break my stride and lost footing but my momentum carried me. Crossed the line in what looked like 19:58 but they marked my time as 20:00. I checked the tape and it said 19:59:56 – I asked them to round down the 59s when they posted the times (we’ll see if they do). a new PR (since college at least-most unexpected)

Great race considering how my legs felt the last couple of days and not having a serious plan at the start.


kick it in earlier

jogged back to the park to pick up Owen and grandma


Sunday's HIM